University of Wyoming Cowboy sophomore swimmer Adam Kalms won the 200-yard individual medley Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship while helping the Cowboys to take over first place at the championships on Thursday, at East Los Angeles College in Los Angeles. Kalms broke the MPSF Championship record and the UW school record on his way to the championship with a time of 1:46.10. Kalms victory along with some other excellent swims from his teammates helped the Pokes take over first place of the MPSF Championships with 230.5 team points.

"We did a great job in our morning swims maximizing our scoring potential tonight," Wyoming associate head coach Matt Leach said. "We came out with great energy today and top to bottom we are swimming great. Today was a total team effort and we are going to keep working hard tomorrow. Adam had an outstanding day today swimming two school record times."

The MPSF Championships opened with the 500 freestyle with junior Ethan Griffel and freshman Ryan Nelson swimming their way from the preliminaries into the championship final with times of 4:27.12 and 4:27.18, respectively. After taking fourth in the preliminary, Griffel moved up one place in the final finishing third in 4:25.38. Nelson finished both races in fifth, touching the wall in the final with a time of 4:26.82. Junior Jayce Calhoon swam his way into the consolation final finishing 11th in the preliminaries with a time of 4:29.22. Calhoon returned to win the consolation final and finish ninth overall with a time of 4:27.34.

"Ethan had a great swim in the big final tonight and Jayce really swam well to come back and win the consolation final," Leach said.

In the following event the 200 IM, Kalms won his championships, but sophomore Jordan Turner also swam in the championship final after finishing sixth in the preliminaries with a time of 1:48.41. Turner came back in the final finishing sixth with an NCAA "B" provisional time of 1:48.49.

In the 50 freestyle, junior Jeff Frey touched the wall in seventh in the preliminaries with a time of 20.36. He returned to the final finishing in the same place with a time of 20.41.

The evenings relay event was the 200 freestyle with the Cowboys finishing third with a new school-record time of 1:20.09. Kalms continued his excellent meet leading the relay off with a new school record in the 50 freestyle swimming a 20.20 split time. Kalms was followed by Frey, junior Nick Rutecki and sophomore Ryan O'Leary who combined for the school-record time.

In the MPSF 3-meter springboard diving competition, junior Derek Campbell and freshman Eric McMillin each dove well in the preliminaries earning a place in the championship final. Campbell finished the final the highest in third place with a final mark of 334.15. McMillin finished the final in eighth place with a mark of 282.65, which was good enough for an NCAA Zone "E" diving championship cut score.

"I was very proud of both Derek and Eric today," Wyoming diving coach Yahya Radman said. "Eric earning a place at Zone's as a freshman is very exciting. As a team we are in a great place and we need to keep building and working hard for team points."

In San Antonio, Texas at the Mountain West Championships the Cowgirls moved up four places to finish the day in fourth place with a team score of 173 points, five points behind third-place Boise State. The MW Championships followed the same swimming order as the MPSF Championships.

The Cowgirls highest finisher of the day was junior Morgan Hartigan in the 50 freestyle. Hartigan took third place in the preliminary with an NCAA "B" provisional time of 22.88. She came back to finish the championship final in third with a time of 22.95.

"Morgan had a tremendous swim in the 50 freestyle tonight," Wyoming head coach Tom Johnson said. "This was a very tight race with very little between the `A' and the `C' finals."

In the 200 IM, senior Jessy Badaracco and sophomore Claudia Carlson finished fifth (2:03.98) and seventh (2:11.83), respectively in the preliminary earning a place in the championship final. Badaracco moved up one place in the championship final touching the wall in fourth with a time of 2:00.46, which was the second-fastest time in school history. Carlson took eighth in the final with the third fastest time in school history of 2:01.84.

"Jessy's swim tonight was amazing," Johnson said. "She was barely touched out at the wall and I think that was the fastest 200 IM I have ever seen at the Mountain West Championships.

Freshman Nicole Hlavacek earned a place in the 500 freestyle championship final with a seventh-place (4:52.06) finish in the preliminaries. Hlavacek came back in the final finishing in eighth place with a time of 4:54.39.

"I was super proud of Nicole's swim tonight in her first championship final of her Cowgirl career," Johnson said.

The MW relay event of the evening was the 400 freestyle relay. Cowgirls Jordan Denny, Stephanie Young, Molly Coonce and Hartigan finished the race in third place with a time of 3:39.71.
In diving at the MW Championships, junior Amanda Fay was the Cowgirls highest finisher taking third in the preliminary with a mark of 281.40. Her preliminary finish earned her a place in the championship competition where she finished eighth with a mark of 267.18.

"Amanda was a very pleasant surprise today," Radman said. "She has been working very hard and it is great to see the progress that she is making every week."